1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention relates to toy vehicles that produce suction to enable the vehicles to travel along vertical walls and move inverted along ceilings. More particularly, the present invention relates to mechanisms contained within such suction wall climbing toys that move the toy from one place to another.
2. Prior Art Description
In the toy industry, the size and cost of motors has decreased dramatically while the power of the motors have either increased or remained the same. The smaller motors are lighter and use less energy than earlier motors. Due to the decrease in weight and power requirements, toys can now be designed and manufactured that would have been impossible only a few decades ago.
One such toy design is the suction wall-climbing toy. Suction wall climbing toys contain a fan that is powered by a small lightweight motor. The fan draws air in from the bottom of the toy. This creates a low-pressure zone under the toy. The low-pressure zone is sufficient enough to hold the weight of the toy against a flat surface. Consequently, the toy can climb up walls and can even run inverted along a ceiling. Such prior art toy devices are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,803 to Urakami, entitled Device Capable Of Suction Adhering To A Wall Surface And Moving Therealong; U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0144624 to Clark, entitled Wall Racer Toy Vehicle; U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,591 to Raviv, entitled Vehicle With Vacuum Traction; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,194,032 to Garfinkel, entitled Mobile Toy With Zero-Gravity System.
The main problem associated with suction toys is that of weight. The suction created by the toy must be sufficient to counteract the weight of the toy. In this manner, the toy will not fall from of a ceiling or wall. However, the toy must contain a fan, wheels, drive motors, control circuits, and batteries. Furthermore, the toy must contain a housing strong enough to protect these elements from repeated falls from a high ceiling to a hard tile floor.
Consequently, when designing a suction toy, every effort is made to minimize the size and weight of the components. The result is a small fragile toy that contains no auxiliary or extraneous elements that would increase the mass of the toy. Consequently, prior art suction toys tend to have very spartan, lightweight bodies.
Many novelty items, such as spiders and superheroes could be marketable as suction wall climbing toys. However, in order to make a suction wall climbing toy look anything like a spider or superhero, the toy must have extraneous elements, such as arms, legs, a head, and the like. A need therefore exists for a way to produce a suction wall-climbing toy with extraneous elements without significantly increasing the mass of the toy assembly. A need also exists for a manner of creating movements in the extraneous elements without requiring the need for additional motors or other densely weighted components. These needs are met by the present invention as described and claimed below.